I look forward to the inevitable study that finds an association between spicy foods and heart disease, or colon cancer, or spontaneous brain tumors, or Lewandowsky-Lutz dysplasia, and recommends reducing intake of aforementioned spicy foods for all humans aged 10-75.
Study finds association between eating hot peppers and decreased mortality
11–20 of 96 posts
Re: Study finds association between eating hot peppers and decreased mortality
#12Yeah.... let's see it replicated first.
But.. but.. it's in PloS One! :)
Re: Study finds association between eating hot peppers and decreased mortality
#13some kind of correlation effect, perhaps? my speculation: eating more chili peppers is associated (positively) with a more varied and nutritious diet
This is what I suspect. There's pretty clear evidence that most American's don't eat nearly enough roughage. Peppers count as roughage, and are often paired with other healthy/fresh items.
Similar correlations have been found with avocados. Avocados aren't particularly healthy when compared to other fruits and vegetables (not to say that they're unhealthy), however eating avocados correlates with better overall dietary quality.
Generally if you're buying more expensive fresh vegetables, you're probably eating that in place of unhealthy processed foods.
Indigestible dietary fiber also helps regulate "fullness." Seeing as the stomach is filled with largely indigestible fiber, instead of high-calorie digestible carbohydrates, it takes far fewer calories to feel full. The work the digestive system has to do in order to break down the roughage also helps mitigate blood glucose levels, by preventing rapid spikes.
If one were to eat just carbs, their readily digestible nature allows the energy to immediately be absorbed. However, the pairing with vegetables slows down the absorption of the carbs, by forcing the digestive system to work on the vegetables in addition to the carbs.
Now this isn't to say carbohydrates are bad, but they shouldn't make up the majority of ones dietary volume.
Re: Study finds association between eating hot peppers and decreased mortality
#14some kind of correlation effect, perhaps? my speculation: eating more chili peppers is associated (positively) with a more varied and nutritious diet
My favorite speculation: eating more chili peppers is associated with reduced sensitivity to pain in general, which leads to lower stress, lower inflammation, and greater physical activity (greater tolerance of muscle soreness and injury risk). There's way more variation in pain sensitivity than most people realize.
Seriously, though, I would expect that the biggest correlation is to ethnic/regional cuisine (particularly southwestern US and Mexican), which I'm not convinced moves the "healthy lifestyle" needle in any particular direction.
Re: Study finds association between eating hot peppers and decreased mortality
#15Man, I should live forever then. I love hot peppers. Well, OK, I usually use bottled pepper sauces of various sorts, not whole, fresh peppers themselves. So maybe that doesn't work. But if it's just the capsaicin, then I get plenty of it... jalapeno pepper, cayenne pepper, chipotle pepper, scotch bonnet pepper, habanero pepper, ghost pepper (naga jolokia), trinidad scorpion pepper, carolina reaper peppers... I love '…
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Re: Study finds association between eating hot peppers and decreased mortality
#16Nice! Given the level of capsicin contained in my blood, I can then declare I'm immortal:)
Seriously, this is something I heard many many years ago. Don't know if it's just a popular belief or something proved scientifically but I had many people tell me that eating hot pepper is very good for health. Roughly the same for garlic.
Re: Study finds association between eating hot peppers and decreased mortality
#1730 years from now: eating too many hot peppers gives you stomach cancer.
Re: Study finds association between eating hot peppers and decreased mortality
#1830 years from now: eating too many hot peppers gives you stomach cancer.
I think you mean "30 hours from now" ;-)
Re: Study finds association between eating hot peppers and decreased mortality
#19I look forward to the inevitable study that finds an association between spicy foods and heart disease, or colon cancer, or spontaneous brain tumors, or Lewandowsky-Lutz dysplasia, and recommends reducing intake of aforementioned spicy foods for all humans aged 10-75.
> The report details six studies on rats and mice in which the animals developed signs of cancer in the stomach or liver after their diet was changed to include more capsaicin
Re: Study finds association between eating hot peppers and decreased mortality
#20Why do people look for correlations any more? Aren't scientists painfully aware of confirmation bias[1] and spurious correlation[2] yet?